As a personal trainer, I hear people express (or accept) this popular concept without a second thought. But if you said “I practice working out,” people would be very confused.

There is something about yoga that allows us to approach it as a lifelong practice; we somehow know we can continue to improve ourselves through yoga forever, without reaching an end or conclusion. I think this has something to do with yoga’s origins in Eastern traditions. Yoga’s ancient spiritual roots seem to make people more forgiving of some of its less tangible aspects. For example, if a yoga instructor tells us that we store a lot of emotion in our hips, it may not occur to us to ask what that means or how anyone could know that. By contrast however, if a Western medical doctor shared some of the physiological specifics of running intervals or doing deadlifts, you might be tempted to ask for evidence—like solid research—that backs the claim.

I propose we start thinking about our workouts the way we think about yoga. Why? I’m glad you asked.

Internal Motivation vs. External Goals

For many people, practicing yoga has as much to do with mental and emotional goals as physical ones. Because yoga encourages the practitioner to remain present, pay attention to her or his breath, and check in with her- or him- self, yoga provides a workout for the mind as well as the body. In short, for many people, the purpose of doing yoga is doing yoga.

In stark contrast to this “the-process-is-the-product” understanding of yoga, we tend to view traditional ways of working out as a means to some other specific end. Being a trainer, I can tell you that most people work out to see aesthetic or performance improvements (and those goals are usually about creating body composition changes). Just as often, fitness is seen as a way to improve the quality of another aspect of life, like lifting luggage, playing with kids, walking up stairs, or carrying groceries. Very rarely does someone improve their fitness in order to be better at the experience of fitness.

Placing the fitness focus on external goals, as opposed to the internal experience of exercise, makes working out seem more like a chore—a step that must be accomplished to get what we really want, as opposed to an experience or a reward in and of itself. There’s nothing wrong with having external or aesthetic goals, but in my experience, most clients who are able to find true, long-term success also tend to fall in love with the process itself.

The “About-to-Die” Factor

Yoga encourages practitioners to check in with their bodies’ limitations so that poses, though potentially challenging, remain physically attainable for the practitioner without causing injury or strain. Good, old-fashioned fitness, on the other hand, currently has a terrible (and inaccurate!) rap for being so hard.

I’ve had clients complain to me after a great and productive workout that they didn’t feel like they were going to puke—as if that’s a bad thing! Marketing, media, and sports folklore would have us believe that if a workout doesn’t make us feel like we’re about to die, then we aren’t working hard enough. Aside from the fact that this is absolutely not true, it also makes the idea of working out extremely daunting and unmotivating.

There’s No Such Thing as “Right”

Add to the equation the fact that fitness has relatively recent Western roots, and you can see why we tend to be more exacting in our desire to do fitness “right.” It seems like we’re more forgiving with yoga. In fact, part of yoga’s appeal might be that because we don’t fully understand how it affects us, we can’t pursue doing it “correctly.” All we know is it’s been around for thousands of years, it challenges our bodies and minds, and it feels darn good.

But in Western science and medicine, we are taught to expect black and white answers. All my clients want to know the exact right way to do things, the exact right combination of exercises, and the exact right eating plan. I assure you: There is no such thing. But that doesn’t stop marketing and media from inundating us with claims of “scientifically proven” ways to lose weight or get shredded fast. (Insert eye roll here.)

Bonus: Meet Your Goals and Maintain Your Gains

If your goal is to get stronger, protect your joints, maintain fat loss, build lean muscle mass, increase balance and mobility, and improve your cardiovascular system, then consistency over the long term is much more important than intensity in the short term. Going really hard and then quitting for a while is the opposite of what you need.

Approaching fitness as a lifelong habit—a continuous, fluid practice—will not only protect you from things like overuse injuries and other ailments that come with doing too much too soon. It will also bring you closer to your goals and allow you to maintain the results you work so hard to achieve

Practice Makes… Even Better Practice

So why does any of this matter? Would approaching fitness as a practice actually improve anything? I think so.

For one, calling something a practice takes the pressure off doing it perfectly. What if not doing it “right,” (missing a lift, having an unexpectedly slow and difficult run, etc.) was just part of getting better at fitness? Thinking you have to do something perfectly makes it more likely you won’t do it at all. I often see clients approaching fitness with the idea that they must succeed in a specific way, and it inevitably leads to them feeling like failures—all it takes is one not-so-great workout to leave people unmotivated to try it again. On the other hand, “practicing” something seems harmless. Fun, even! I think approaching fitness as a skill to be developed and improved would increase the likelihood of people getting started, while increasing motivation for continuing.

The future of the fitness industry should be anti- fast results and anti- instant gratification. We should be approaching the weight room as a place to learn skills that we can practice and improve, month after month, year after year, forever. There is so much joy to be had in fitness, so many different ways to progress, and so much pleasure in movement and overcoming obstacles.

So, let’s start approaching fitness like we approach yoga. Let’s take our time to learn the basics before moving on to the hard stuff. Let’s aim to be constantly improving and taking on new challenges, and pushing our limits. Let’s celebrate our victories in the gym, not just on the scale, and let’s do it for the simple reward of using our bodies for something challenging and wonderful.

—Jessi Kneeland for Greatist

Be a beginner Not being able to run an entire mile the first time you attempt to run is perfectly normal—and I promise, no one is judging you for it. In fact, you should be proud you’re even trying. You’ve got to start somewhere, so why not accept your newbie status and plan to take walk breaks on your first few jogs around the neighborhood. Then give yourself time to build up your endurance and distances.

Back off the speed Unless you’ve got a sponsorship deal with a major sports brand, running fast isn’t really necessary. And it might even be preventing you from actually enjoying the run. Try running slower, at a pace that allows you to speak in full sentences, and see how your body reacts—your breathing will feel more natural, your joints won’t start aching as quickly, and you might even find yourself smiling out there.

Set small goals See that telephone pole at the end of the street? Run to that, and then pick your next target. Creating small goals within your workout keeps it interesting, and feeling those little twinges of achievement can help you enjoy running more. Today the next mailbox, tomorrow the finish line of your first 10K!

Enjoy being alone The kids aren’t around, your boss isn’t standing over you, it’s just you, your running shoes, and the road. Thinking of your run as “me” time will help you see it as a special event, one you’ll start looking forward to.

Find a buddy Pounding the pavement with a friend can make all the difference. You can encourage each other to get going, commiserate on the hills, and chit-chat your way to the finish. And making a plan to meet someone for a run can give you a little extra motivation to get out the door. (Find more tips on running with others here.)

Make the miles matter When the personal benefits of running (weight loss, improved cardiovascular health, reduced stress, etc.) aren’t enough to get you to pick up your feet, consider running for a cause. Sign up for a 5K that raises funds for a nonprofit organization, or download an app like Charity Miles, which lets you earn money for a charity of your choice with every step you take.

Listen to music Studies show upbeat tunes can distract you from physical exertion and even get you to push a little harder. (Songs between 120 and 140 beats per minute have the biggest impact.) Just be smart about your headphones—only use them in safe, low-traffic areas and keep the volume at a level that allows you to still hear what’s going on around you.

Track your success Feel like you’re not getting anywhere? Try logging every run with an app like MapMyRun, RunKeeper, or Runtastic. You’ll be able to look back and see how far you’ve gone—and how much faster you’ve gotten along the way! Keep track of your routes and see if you can do the neighborhood loop faster next time, or increase your distance by tacking on an extra block or two.

What helped you learn to like running (or any other form of exercising)? Share your tips in the comments! 

As a member of the United States Air Force, Gerard (or G, as he likes to be called) is required to take regular fitness tests to gauge his level of health and fitness, ensuring he is ready for any military mission at any time.

After scoring a 78 on his 2008 test — just 3 points above passing — he decided he didn’t want to be average and knew he needed to make a change to his diet and overall lifestyle. Even though exercise was part of G’s routine, he couldn’t seem to say no to the not-so-healthy foods that were outdoing his hard work.

“On a personal level, that was not where I needed to be in life. You really can’t outrun your fork.”

After buckling down on his diet by tracking his food with the MyFitnessPal app, getting a standing desk for work and becoming more serious with his running, G scored a 95 on his 2011 test, surpassing even his own expectations.  

Now, G has completed multiple marathons and recently ran a 100K (62-mile) race this past June. Clearly, his life is a far cry from his 2008 self — and we don’t need a fitness test to tell us that.

WATCH MORE VICTORY STORIES

> Danielle’s Story
> Sam’s Story
> Ashley’s Story

It was early in the Colorado ski season and he had been looking forward to months of fun and challenging runs on the slopes. After teaching his five kids to ski while they were growing up, Williams was confident in his abilities. But there he was, exhausted and struggling to get up from a fall in the powder. Again.

“I felt like the Pillsbury Doughboy whenever I had to stand up,” he recalls. “The whole day consisted of huffing and puffing, and of course, falling. That’s the moment when I thought: This is not working. This is not how a guy in his late 40s should be. Something needs to change.”

For the couple decades leading up to that moment, Williams led a fairly sedentary lifestyle outside of the kids’ ski lessons. As a businessman in Colorado Springs, Colorado, he spent a great deal of time at a desk or in his car and ate plenty of on-the-go meals. Since his mid-20s, when he first felt truly overweight, he’d embarked on one fad diet or another, losing 20–30 pounds at a time and then regaining the weight as soon as he grew tired of dieting.

The ski incident, coupled with a looming 50th birthday, convinced him to try a different tactic. Rather than starting yet another trendy diet that was doomed to fail, he started tracking his food intake with MyFitnessPal. He set a weight goal and used the app to determine a realistic timeframe for getting there. For the first time, he knew exactly how many calories to eat per day and how his daily meals fit into a larger weight-loss goal.

After some time using the app, he realized the more he exercised, the more calories he could eat while still staying on track — an adjustment the app made automatically. Williams had started running on a regular basis and needed some extra calories to fuel his workouts, but was careful to stick to his calorie goals.

Williams admits to still eating his favorite foods from time-to-time, like hamburgers, french fries and pizza, but he’s also developed a love for healthy food and can easily see when less-than-stellar meal choices are starting to become a problem. He knows if he slacks on tracking his food, it’s likely he’d start slipping into his old patterns — like overeating or snacking mindlessly while traveling from one client meeting to another.

“Even though I lost the weight and kept it off, tracking helps me to continue making better choices,” he says. “Because I’ve been doing this for so long, I spend less than two minutes a day entering my food. But the effect of tracking and being aware of my choices lasts all day.”

Five years later, that day on the ski slopes seems like a different lifetime for Williams. He’s lost 50 pounds and still logs his meals every day.

His healthy eating is also giving him more energy than he had even as a 20-something, he says. These days, he skis more than ever, plays drums in a band, owns his own business and has run two marathons and a number of half marathons. He also just signed up to tackle one of the toughest races in the world, the Pikes Peak Marathon, which takes runners straight up the mountain for the first 13.1 miles and straight back down for the second half.

“Everything is affected by being healthier,” he says. “Five years ago, I would never have imagined I could be at this point. But now, I go on my morning run and look up at that mountain and I think, ‘I’ll be running up there soon.’ What an incredible feeling. Commit to the process and it will really pay off.”

For Jesse Alloy, a 19-year-old sophomore at University of Virginia, prom was also life-changing. He attributes prom as his aha moment, when he decided it was time to tackle his weight.

Though prom stands out, it was a combination of things that prompted him to attempt to lose weight. “Senior year prom was coming up, and I wanted to ask someone,” he says. “But more specifically, I had seen some unflattering photos of myself. I realized it wasn’t exactly the photos that were unflattering. It was me. It was a classic wake-up call. Reality smacked me in the face, and I decided enough was enough.”

LET’S REWIND A LITTLE AND GET TO KNOW JESSE

Jesse was overweight from elementary school. His mom is in shape and works in the fitness industry but his dad is overweight. He thought it was simply in his genetics to be bigger, so he didn’t question his size. He played sports — soccer (as a goalkeeper), football and wrestling — but was never the star. Since he wasn’t super-athletic, he focused his energy on academics and excelled in science and especially computers.

As a wrestler, he began to see that people manipulate their weight all the time. He started to wonder if he could do that, too. “For me, wrestling was actually a mentally healthy sport, as it turns body weight into an extremely malleable fact of our bodies,” he recalls. “Your weight simply decides who you wrestle, and that’s all. It stopped me from valuing myself through a number on the scale. With wrestling, I was able to become more comfortable admitting to myself where I was physically. I started to realize that my weight was in my control — so the possibility of losing weight and keeping it off started to sink in.”

AND THEN CAME THE TURNING POINT

“After my fourth wrestling season, I hit my all-time high weight of about 250 pounds,” he says. “I never actually saw that number, but I was in the mid 240s at the end of the season, and know I gained a bit of weight after that. So 250 is the number I go with as my start weight.”

Prom turned out to be just the beginning of his 95-pound weight-loss journey. His new suit — which had fit perfectly the previous winter for a cousin’s wedding — was too loose come spring, much to his parents’ surprise. Jesse had lost 20 pounds.

FIRST CAME CHANGING HIS DIET

To lose those first 20 pounds, he started with intermittent fasting to gain a sense of control and to kick things off. “I knew I wasn’t in shape, so I decided straight off the bat that working out wasn’t going to do it,” he says. “I’m actually not sure I would have succeeded if I started with diet and exercise at the same time. It would’ve been too much.” With hindsight being 20/20, he says, “I know now that small, sustainable change is the approach to any attempt at a new lifestyle.”

When summer came around, things got serious (cue the “Rocky” theme song). That was when Jesse decided to integrate exercise into his routine. He started with running. “My first run, was not even a mile, and it went terribly,” he remembers. “But the next day I did the same thing. And the next day I did it again as well. And eventually it got easier, and I could run longer.” It’s exactly this day-by-day attitude that had carried him this far — and got him 50 pounds lighter.

IT WAS THE OPPOSITE OF THE FRESHMAN 15, AND THEN SOME

Heading off to college meant he had to double down. “With MyFitnessPal, I could count what I was eating,” he says. It was a challenge in the dining hall, but MyFitnessPal’s database had all the nutritional info for the food-service provider his college used, “so it was never so bad,” he recalls. “And I was able to eat unlimited veggies with the huge salad bars available all day, every day. From here, it was autopilot. Running got better — I even started to enjoy it — and the weight was coming off.”

His mindset around food also was shifting. “Basically, to combat hunger, I learned how to eat to feel good,” he says. “That is, I started eating all sorts of veggies and lean meats. I stayed away from sugar when I could, tried not to drink my calories and processed foods became more of a treat since I knew they usually weren’t super satisfying.”

Jesse didn’t do this alone. He had a robust online weight-loss community and the encouragement of friends and family, in addition to his own steely determination and the help of food scales and apps like MyFitnessPal. “I love MyFitnessPal because it gives me freedom to eat what I want, when I want, without guilt,” he says. “It keeps me accountable and conscious of my progress. I have nights and days when I don’t track, but they are few and far between. The app gives me knowledge, and knowledge gives me power. I’m not scared to gain back the weight because I know how to take it off again.”

READ MORE

> Daniel’s Weight-Loss Secret? 2 Pounds Per Week
> 20 More Non-Scale Victories by MyFitnessPal Users
> The Sandwich Walker: One Man’s 100-Pound “Active Helping” Quest

With his diet and nutrition under control, Jesse’s now focusing more on his training. “Though I don’t run many races aside from the occasional 5K, I run every day. These days I run 4–8 miles a day, hitting 30–50 miles a week. I love it. It’s meditative, it’s relaxing, it’s destressing — and it gives me room to eat a bit more when I want.”

In addition to the cardio, he’s adding strength workouts into his regimen. “I love to work legs because it helps with my running, but it’s also getting me into all-around physique work.” In fact, with the lifting comes the willingness to actually gain weight in the form of muscle.

After hitting his low of 155 pounds, Jesse’s finding himself confident and comfortable at a more muscular 165. And he’s definitely OK with that.

We’ve selected a few healthy-living podcasts so no matter what your goals are, you’ve got someone to help you on your journey.

Dishing Up Nutrition

Licensed nutritionists and dietitians team up to tackle some of the biggest questions in nutrition. Rotating hosts dive into everything from which foods are trending to which foods can prevent the cold and flu — and even foods to combat anxiety. Episodes last around 40 minutes, which is perfect to pair with a workout or keep you entertained during your commute.

Food Psych

If your relationship with food could use some work and you need a dose of healthy body love each week, Food Psych will be there for you. Registered dietitian and nutritionist Christy Harrison talks everything from eating disorders to diet culture to body image with a scientific and straightforward approach. She also answers listener questions weekly. Episodes run almost an hour and a half, so this one is best reserved for when you’re going long.

TEDTalks Health

If you know TED, you know you’re guaranteed high-quality production and great, interesting content from knowledgeable sources. Topics are timely and span health and medical news, trends and more. TEDTalks Health also includes videos, so when you’re able to you can also watch the presenters.

Ali on the Run

Whether you want to become a regular runner or you’re a seasoned marathoner, Ali on the Run is full of knowledge to inspire your stride. Host Ali Feller talks to everyday runners, professional athletes, entrepreneurs and industry leaders, making sure each episode is interesting and different. Episodes run from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours, and her upbeat enthusiasm is perfect to accompany you next time you head outside or step on the treadmill.

Sleep With Me

If you have trouble sleeping or just want a different way to relax, Sleep With Me may be your new bedtime companion. Host Drew Ackerman tells stories that are intentionally meant to lull you to sleep. The hour-long episodes help you fall asleep with a smile on your face and Drew’s deep, soothing voice in your head.

The Dumbbells

Comedians Eugene Cordero and Ryan Stranger use their background in improv to talk physical fitness in a whole new way. Their tone is light, but the content is informative — and they tackle different training methods, nutrition trends and even mental health and self-care. Episodes can last well over an hour and often contain informational interviews. They’re a great companion during a long strength-training session.

From The Heart: Conversations with Yoga Girl

If you love the yogi way of life, you’ll appreciate getting to know host Rachel Brathen. She’s an international yoga teacher and speaker and she talks frankly each episode about mental health, yoga, meditation and even her own struggles. Those trying to balance family and self care will especially love this one, as the hour-long episodes often touch on her search for balance between family, business and health.

Food Heaven Podcast

Nutritionists Wendy Lopez and Jessica Jones know healthy living is a lifestyle, so their podcast dives into what that actually means. They interview health experts on a range of trending health topics from CBD to eating disorders and episodes last anywhere from 15 minutes to one hour. They also offer lots of tips on healthy eating and break down myths in the health community.